Genre-leaping composer and violin star Mark O’Connor is not the first string-instrument player, famous or otherwise, to have studied the Suzuki Method when he was a child. Nor is he the first to have wished for an alternative to Suzuki, which stresses repetition, memorization and having children learn to play an instrument, by ear, before learning to read music by the great 18th century European composers.

But O’Connor, who has won Grammy Awards for both his country and classical music albums, may be the first to create his own, homegrown American alternative to Suzuki, and to teach it nationwide.

Or, as this former Bonsall resident described it in a recent interview from his New York apartment: “The O’Connor Method, in a nutshell, uses American music and also features creative learning. It’s designed so that students can be creative musicians, as well as learning the technique that is required. That’s the big difference.

“By ‘creative,’ I mean a musician who will ultimately be able to grow up to do one, or all, of the following — improvise, arrange, compose or lead an ensemble. Those are the four creative areas for a string player. And I feel those are missing in current methodologies.”

Like no other violinist before him, O’Connor is uniquely qualified to accomplish his ambitious goals. He performs here this afternoon at the Balboa Theater. The concert’s billing — “Classics 4 Kids Presents Bluegrass & Bach with Mark O’Connor” — only hints at his stylistic breadth. It is being presented by Classics 4 Kids, a 19-year-old organization dedicated to introducing San Diego school children to the joys of orchestral music.

Now 51, O'Connor released his first solo album in 1976, when he was all of 12.

He has since made at least 28 more albums under his own name, in addition to appearing as a featured instrumentalist on more than 500 albums by myriad other artists. They range from opera superstar Renée Fleming and jazz greats Wynton Marsalis and Stephané Grappelli to James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, Yo-Yo Ma and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Able to perform virtually any style with infectious verve and impressive authority, O’Connor is equally noted as a composer for orchestras, string quartets, trios and, well, you name it. He has written commissioned pieces for the Santa Fe Music Festival, Library of Congress and more than a dozen orchestras, including the San Diego Symphony. In 2005, a year before he left Bonsall for the Big Apple, he debuted his String Quartet No. 2 (“Bluegrass”) at SummerFest in La Jolla.

But performing and composing aren’t the only parts of O’Connor’s impressive oeuvre.

In 2009, he completed and introduced a series of 10 books, “The O’Connor Method — A New American School of String Playing.” His method has since been adapted by the Berklee School of Music in Boston, one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the nation.

“I feel like he’s on the frontier of revolutionizing the way we teach strings,” said Dana Mambourg Zimbric, the music director and conductor of Classics 4 Kids and the Classics Philharmonic Orchestra. Earlier this week, Classics 4 Kids presented a series of free concerts and workshops at the Balboa Theater by O’Connor. Pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and elementary school children from across San Diego County.